* Pope Francis called for an end to the conflict in Ukraine and other conflicts in his Christmas message on Sunday, saying the world was suffering from a "famine of peace".
* Russia is ready to negotiate with all parties involved in the war in Ukraine but Kyiv and its Western backers have refused to engage in talks, President Vladimir Putin said in an interview aired on Sunday.
* China's private company GalaxySpace is accelerating the research and development of flat-panel stackable satellites, for rapid construction of a satellite internet constellation.
* A total of 1,919.2 kg of scrap paper were collected with a nationwide recycling day initiative being held in Brunei on Saturday, said the country's Department of Environment, Parks and Recreation under the Ministry of Development.
* Afghanistan's Taliban-run administration on Saturday ordered all local and foreign non-governmental organisations (NGO) to stop female employees from coming to work, according to an economy ministry letter.
* The Libyan National Army of eastern commander Khalifa Haftar on Saturday announced "a final opportunity" to draw up a road map for elections, Libyan al-Hadath TV reported, a year to the day after rival factions agreed to hold the polls.
* Clashes broke out for a second day in Paris on Saturday between police and Kurdish protestors angry at the killing of three members of their community by a gunman.
* The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on Saturday warned of "escalation of settlement activities" in the West Bank and East Jerusalem with the formation of the new Israeli government.
* The US Energy Department on Saturday declared a power emergency in the country's second-largest state Texas amid an Arctic winter blast that was feared to cause a shortage of electricity in the state.
* India's foreign exchange reserves decreased to 563.5 billion USD from 564.07 billion USD during the week ending Dec. 16, the central bank has said. The decline was reported after a five-week rising streak.
* The economy of Belarus is expected to shrink by 4% in 2022 after western nations imposed punitive measures, much less than some had forecast, Interfax cited Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko as saying on Saturday.
* The Philippines reported 666 new COVID-19 infections on Sunday, pushing the number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 4,061,663.
* India's daily COVID-19 caseload Sunday increased to 227, officials said. According to data released by the government, the active caseload stands at 3,424.
* Malaysia reported 766 new COVID-19 infections as of midnight Saturday, bringing the national total to 5,022,910, according to the health ministry. Another new death has been reported, pushing the death toll to 36,831.
* An arctic blast that gripped much of the United States on Saturday left more than 700,000 without power, at least 16 dead from weather-related car crashes and thousands stranded due to flight cancellations.
* Recent heavy snow in Japan's north and elsewhere have killed 13 people injured more than 80 and left more than 10,000 households without power, the authorities said on Saturday.
* Sri Lanka's Department of Meteorology on Sunday said that they expect heavy showers in many parts of the country within the next 48 hours.
* The final victim of last week's landslide in Malaysia has been recovered, leaving the final death toll at 31, the authorities said on Saturday.
